


Here, kitty.

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [13]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Halloween Costumes, M/M, Spells & Enchantments, benarmie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-27 13:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16220399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween day 13: pet costumesBen has been invited to Holdo’s annual costume party. Hux disapproves of the costume Ben has picked out but he goes along with playingsexy cat familiarto Ben’s witch outfit. Something unexpected happens at midnight.





	Here, kitty.

Rain battered against the double glazing and filled the snug room with a comforting, irregular patter of noise. The wind blew howls and deeper moans into the chimney stack but, try as it might, it could not huff or puff through the wadding that sealed the fireplace from the elements outside. Relaxing in the warm glow of his reading lamp, Hux stretched and flicked his gaze from his book to the decorative plants that obscured the decorative hearth and wondered, for the umpteenth time, if curling in front of a real fire wouldn’t be nice on a night like this. He sighed at the imagined expense of having the chimney opened and a wood-burning stove installed, then got up and patted the radiator, shaking the heat from his hand afterwards.

The door rattled and opened, then banged shut with a curse. Hux listened, smiling, as a bag was dropped, shoes were kicked off, a coat was hung up and thick, unruly hair was swept back and shaken out with a grumble about the weather. But when he came into the living room, Ben’s grin split his face. “I got costumes for tonight.”  
“No.” Hux shook his head. “I won’t dress up. Let’s stay home tonight,”  
“What? No! It’s perfect,” Ben said. “I’ll dress in the witch outfit and you can be my familiar. Inspector Holdo will love it. C’mon, Hux, I need to ingratiate myself with the team.”  
“Can’t I go as the managing director of a successful military research facility? Or can I be the witch?” Hux whined. But Ben only pouted, reached into the costume bag and pulled an enormous pointy hat over his head. It slipped down to rest on his ears. Hux sucked his lips in and bit them together to stop from giggling.  
“Well then,” he said after a moment. “Since you got a hat too large for even your big head, I suppose I’ll have to be the pet. What did you get me? I better not be a toad.”  
Ben grinned and rummaged in the bag again. “This!” he said, pulling out a long, fluffy tail with stripes of cream and orange, and a matching pair of cat ears. “It’s the perfect colour for you.” Hux gave Ben a warning glare. Ben smiled sweetly. “Goes so well with your green eyes.”

Four hours later, Ben dressed in a black caftan with a flowing black cape and an oversized pointy hat, carrying a broomstick, followed by Hux dressed as a ginger cat, dashed from the back of a taxi and knocked on Holdo’s door. It creaked open and they stepped inside, glad to be out of the rain.  
“WoooOOOOOooo!” moaned a human sized white sheet, then it laughed and pulled the fabric away to reveal a sparkling smile and dark eyes set in a face framed by black, wavy hair shot with grey.  
“Hi Dameron,” said Ben. “This is Hux. My—“  
“Housecat. I mean, house _mate.”_ said Hux, slinking his way past Ben. “Ben and I share a house. Pleased to meet you.”  
Dameron grinned and shook Hux’s paw. Hux almost purred. Ben glared but Hux wasn’t looking at him. Dameron laughed and winked at Hux. “I think your boyfriend wants me to drop dead. That right, Kylo?”  
Ben froze. Hux turned to face him, eyebrow arched. “Kylo?”  
“It’s my pseudonym for my photography business,” Ben said. He shifted his glare from Hux to Dameron. “And yes, I do.”  
Ben steered Hux into the living room where the party was getting going. “Why did you do that?” he muttered close to Hux’s ear. Hux shrugged.  
“I thought you wanted me to play sexy kitten.”  
Ben pouted a little. “Only for me.”  
Hux smiled and stored that fact for later, then he slipped his hands around Ben’s waist and kissed him.

The evening progressed with smalltalk and work-related banter that Hux had no part in. Hux checked the clock as he swirled his second drink around the inside of the wine glass, yawned and glanced around the room. Dameron was talking and waving his arms around while another man laughed. A girl dressed as a warrior sat on the edge of the sofa and chatted with Holdo, hair dyed the colour of pumpkin skin for the evening. A few other people talked in small groups as music played in the background. Ben appeared at his elbow.  
“Thanks for being so patient. I promise we can get out of here right after midnight. That’s long enough to have gotten my face and name known a bit better. With a bit of luck I’ll get some more work offers out of this.”

The clock ticked up to 11.59pm. Holdo stood and raised her glass. “Midnight is upon us!”  
Everyone stood to return the toast then Holdo sat down again, Dameron put his sheet back on and the girl grabbed her cardboard broadsword. Dameron’s handsome friend donned his pretend army helmet and held his plastic rifle across his chest. Holdo laughed. “Look at us all. Imagine we were actually—“  
The clock struck once then twice, the sound reverberating through the walls of her modern, semi-detached house. Holdo frowned at it. “Funny,” she said after the third _clang!_ It’s never made that noise before.”  
Dameron picked up the clock and turned it around in his sheet-draped hands, over and over. “I can’t see any way it could do that,” he said, mystified.  
As the twelfth _clang!_ echoed and died, the clock fell to the floor and smashed into its component plastic parts. Dameron’s sheet fluttered down after it. Ben stared, mouth open, as Holdo’s figure on the sofa shimmered and morphed into a huge, orange gourd.  
“Sir!” Dameron’s friend stood at attention. He saluted. “Private Finn reporting for duty. What are my orders?”  
“Well,” said the girl, now fully armoured and trying to heft an iron sword almost as long as she was tall, “you could start by giving me a hand.”  
From the kitchen, Holdo’s husband—who had dressed up in a gold lamé body-stocking with electrical wires stitched over the seams—could be heard to exclaim, “Oh my! Whatever is going on? This is most unusual. We’re doomed!”  
“Hux?” Ben looked around but Hux was nowhere to be seen. “Hux!” he called louder, then a sharp pain in his shin made him cry out and look down. An enormous ginger tabby-cat glared balefully up at him with bright green eyes. Ben shook his head. “No,” he said. “This is not possible. OW! Okay, okay. Claws in, Hux. I believe it’s you.”

Private Finn and the young woman with the broadsword, who introduced herself as Rey of the Resistance, announced that they were going to round up the other party goers. Ben listened at the door: moans and cut-short screams came from those who may have found themselves unexpectedly canoodling with a _real_ vampire, zombie or werewolf. Hux swiped at Ben’s shin again and walked over to the bookcase he’d been studying earlier out of a combination of curiosity and boredom. He stretched up and clawed at a shelf. Hux arched his back, hissed and spat, staring into empty air as three books floated from the shelf, rising up in front of Ben’s face. He plucked the nearest from its invisible wire and the other two whomped to the floor by his feet. Hux leapt and scrambled to the top of the bookcase, using his claws to haul himself up the final half metre, and hunkered down, observing the whole room from a place of relative safety.

Ben frowned. “Harry Potter?” He put the paperback on the shelf and picked up the two books from the floor. “Hmm. _A Treatise on Modern Witchcraft_ and _Ecce Romani Book Two._ ” He peered up at Hux. “What are you telling me, kitty?”  
Hux growled. Ben felt the pointy hat lifted from his head. Somehow, the hat swung back in the air and then flew into his face before being shaken out and rammed back on his head so hard it fell over his eyes and rested on his ears and nose. Understanding hit Ben hard. He searched the shelves until he found a Latin dictionary, then leafed through it, mumbling to himself.

Ben lifted the painted dowel rod he was using as a magic wand in his left hand. He waved it experimentally a few times, then took a deep breath and yelled.

“Normalis reverti!”

Thumps, yells and cries came from all over the house. Holdo stretched and twisted back into her normal form, rubbing at her limbs and groaning. Dameron popped back into existence right in front of Ben and clapped him on the arm.  
“Nice work, buddy,” he said. “Figured if I was a real ghost and your boyfriend was a real kittycat then you could be a real witch. You just needed a hint to find a spell.”  
Ben frowned and started to speak but he was cut off by Finn and Rey returning to tell tales of how their costume-made-real versions had prevented carnage in the rest of the house. Holdo and Dameron went with them to help traumatised guests where they could and Ben was left looking around the empty living room. He sighed, then started as a sound came from above him.

Hux glared down with a hint of panic in his bright green eyes. ”Ben you arse,” he squealed. “Help me down.”


End file.
